Less routes, less stops and less municipalities

Spain prepares for a deep change in its bus lines. The Ministry of Transport has the mission of renewing a system that has become obsolete, with dozens of expired services in its award but that continue to be provided by the impossibility of new competitions. And with the challenge of transforming and approaching the new realities of our country.

What is happening? He Concessional map of Spanish buses He prepares for a deep change. The Ministry of Transport Wait for the response of the Autonomous Communities to your last proposal in a period that expires next Monday. Silence will be taken as an acceptance of the new model but it is not clear what the vote of a good part of the regions will be, mostly governed by the Popular Party.

How do Spanish buses work? In Spain, two companies are not allowed to fight along the same line, as with trains. There are currently 77 runners who go out to competition. To this exam the interested companies are presented and, subsequently, the concession to whom the best offer under the designed sheets is attributed.

What changes are proposed? What Transport has presented has been a deep redesign in this way of acting. They point out in Five daysthat from wanting to reduce to 22 runners of the total of 77 that is now available. These, they say, respond to the new ways of moving from the Spaniards who have been betting on the journeys between large cities or have jumped to the train.

This implies, irremediably, that the new routes would put aside many municipalities (especially those that have lost population). Transport ensures that this service will have to replace the autonomous communities with their own concessions and offer 40 million euros extra help to implement the new lines.

What do those involved respond? They point out in the economic environment that the opposition has not made its position clear. It has been pointed out that 40 million euros are insufficient and that the investment should be at least 110 million euros. However, the regions have until next Monday to answer and give a definitive answer.

For their part, bus companies have been divided for years. Confebus is an association that represents 40% of companies that operate in our country and They firmly believe in the concessional modelsince they ensure that it allows more security for travelers when it comes to the route and also greater security for companies that have to get the concession.

Anetra or Flixbus, however, carry years betting on liberalization of the sector. This last company uses a franchise system throughout Europe that analyzes customer movement data, with the aim of focusing on those most profitable routes with a higher volume of income. Something that cannot be done in Spain.

A monopoly without expiration date. The main problem indicated by these companies, but also by the government, is that the terms of the awards are not being fulfilled. In Five days They put the example of the Madrid-Irún route, one of the ones that moves the most money but has been expired for six years. Without a new contest, the concessionary company continues to act in a kind of undercover monopoly.

The reasons are varied but they almost always follow the same pattern. It is very difficult to take the new corridor in contest because the process is drowned in a tangle of allegations during the different phases of the process. Madrid-Valenciawhich has to go out to competition, already accumulates more than 800 allegations.

Goodbye, town, goodbye. The great victims of the new process are, without a doubt, the inhabitants of hundreds of municipalities that could run out of routes. With the new transport proposition (They have been advancing since 2022)the data speak for themselves: the stops will be reduced, on average, from 12.8 per route to just six. The municipalities under the responsibility of transport go from 1,912 locations to 495.

From the Ministry they try to calm the waters ensuring that the municipalities that are abandoned because the affected autonomous communities do not take care of those routes that, with the new model, fall on their roof will be served by transport. But it has not been said under what conditions or if there will be reductions in frequencies, for example.

Photo | Flixbus and Ash Gerlach

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